Luminaires, such as are used for illumination of specific or general areas, e.g., street lighting, parking lot lighting, or the like, are known. Such luminaires are typically installed in outdoor environments where conditions can vary widely depending on current local weather conditions (Alaska winters vs Phoenix summers).
Luminaires in addition to being installed in adverse environments are typically relatively high powered lighting fixtures that operate off of AC power sources and utilize high voltage lamps, e.g., high pressure sodium lamps or the like. Luminaires, thus, while operating tend to dissipate a significant amount of energy in the form of heat and thus can have a high internal ambient temperature. Furthermore, many luminaires utilize electrical or electronic ballasts to supply the requisite voltages and currents to sustain an electric arc that supplies the light required for purposes of lighting. As is known the combination of relatively high voltages or currents which vary widely over time and the like tends to result in significant electromagnetic energy fields, i.e. significant Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI).
Luminaires are available from numerous suppliers and these suppliers typically arrange the luminaire components in different manners. Regardless of the supplier, most luminaires have been designed with a package size that is suitable for the normal components found in such luminaires, e.g., lamps, reflectors, ballasts, etc. Generally these luminaries do not include sufficient space for substantial additional components or such space may vary widely among different luminaries from different suppliers.
More recently in the interest of energy savings, etc., luminaires that include additional electronic control and communications functionality and circuitry have been proposed. Unfortunately, the limited and varying luminaire package space, adverse or hostile temperatures, and EMI profiles, can make it difficult to include the additional electronics for control and communication in any one luminaire much less across varying luminaires from varying suppliers.